Harvard Hillel Falsely Accuses the Forward

Harvard being Harvard, and Hillel being Hillel, it catches an editor’s attention when the executive director of Hillel at Harvard sends out an email blast publicly accusing the Forward of printing an untruth; especially when he does so without the courtesy of telling us or others what that untruth might be — despite our having asked.

In this case, my concern is exacerbated by the fact that the charge is flat out wrong.

It was on Friday, December 13 — as we at the Forward were still waiting to hear back from him after an initial exchange — that Harvard Hillel’s executive director, Rabbi Jonah Steinberg, sent out his email blast to the Hillel center’s thousands of members and supporters.

The email began bluntly:

A recent article in the Jewish Daily Forward, suggesting that the former speaker of the Knesset and past head of the World Zionist Organization, Abraham Burg, was banned from speaking under Harvard Hillel’s roof during his recent visit to Harvard University, was factually incorrect.

I only became aware of Steinberg’s email when a recipient forwarded it to us several hours after it went out. I was quite surprised. Just three days earlier, Rabbi Steinberg had called us to make the same accusation and to demand a correction on a story we had published on December 9. That story dealt in part with a ban promulgated by Hillel International, Harvard Hillel’s parent body, on any involvement in Hillel programming by certain kinds of groups and individuals considered hostile to Israel.

The passage Steinberg objected to in our story stated that Swarthmore College Hillel, in recently voting to defy Hillel International’s ban, had cited as one of its catalysts “a recent decision by the Hillel center at Harvard University to bar Abraham Burg, a former speaker of the Israeli Knesset and Jewish Agency chairman, from speaking under its roof as an immediate cause for its decision. The Harvard Hillel center objected to the fact that Burg’s talk was cosponsored by Harvard College’s Palestinian Solidarity Committee.”

On receiving news of Steinberg’s phone call, I emailed him straight back asking to know what, specifically, was incorrect about this information. The Swarthmore Hillel board had, indisputably, referred to the Harvard episode as one of its catalysts in deciding to toss out Hillel International’s rules. And the episode at Harvard itself had been widely reported at the time. In a November 26 article in the Harvard Crimson, Harvard Hillel Undergraduate President David F. Sackstein was quoted saying, “[It] was agreed upon in advance that this wouldn’t occur at Hillel, in compliance with these organizations’ interpretation of Harvard Hillel’s policy.”

In my email to Steinberg, after reviewing the basics of the incident as it had been reported, I cut and pasted the disputed lines from our story and asked: “Can you specify in what respect this passage is incorrect?”

And then I waited.

But we never received a reply — until we got news of Steinberg’s public email blast to Harvard Hillel’s members and supporters reiterating the very charge that he had declined to support with us.

In actual fact, two paragraphs after condemning our report as inaccurate Steinberg’s email blast confirmed it: After noting that Harvard Hillel had sponsored a talk by Burg at a closed, invitation-only dinner during his campus visit, Steinberg wrote: “Harvard Hillel did decline to co-sponsor a subsequent talk by Mr. Burg, which was held elsewhere on campus, because that particular event was sponsored in part by the Palestine Solidarity Committee, which campaigns for Harvard and the U.S. to divest from and to boycott and sanction Israel (BDS).”

The nonpublic event, of course, was not the one that Swarthmore Hillel referred to, nor, as a consequence, the one we mentioned.

Would Harvard Hillel consider publishing an apology and a correction to its email blast?

Top Stories

The Jewish Daily Forward welcomes reader comments in order to promote thoughtful discussion on issues of importance to the Jewish community. In the interest of maintaining a civil forum, The Jewish Daily Forwardrequires that all commenters be appropriately respectful toward our writers, other commenters and the subjects of the articles. Vigorous debate and reasoned critique are welcome; name-calling and personal invective are not. While we generally do not seek to edit or actively moderate comments, our spam filter prevents most links and certain key words from being posted and The Jewish Daily Forward reserves the right to remove comments for any reason.

Inspired by his Brooklyn childhood, The Little Beet chef/owner developed a gluten-free version of apple pie for his restaurant that's the perfect #passover dessert: baked apples with vanilla-walnut charoset.

Has your non-Jewish colleague told you Passover is only one night — or that Hanukkah always falls on December 25? That's #goysplaining, says Lilit Marcus.
Have you ever been goysplained?

It's only been a day since Trevor Noah was appointed Jon Stewart's The Daily Show successor, and he's now being slammed for old anti-Semitic tweets.
What do you think of Noah's tweets? Let us know in the comments.

Israel's own Black Panthers once latched onto the #Passover story to challenge Ashkenazi domination. The radicals issued their own Haggadah, which mentioned strikes and injustice — but not God.

Fans of the The Daily Show are wondering how new host, Trevor Noah, will address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Well, his past posts on social media indicate he probably won’t be appearing at next year’s AIPAC conference

#Passover is now five days away. That means matzo, matzo, and more matzo — kind of a mood killer. Here are 6 things you should watch to get you revved up for Seder.

Even though it's often men who lead the Seder in traditional Jewish families, Avi Shafran believes that the Seder itself is maternal in its quality and purpose.

From our friends at Kveller.com, need something delicious for a Passover snack? How about this potato pizza kugel!

#Passover is especially meaningful — and challenging — when you're converting. Take it from Kelsey Osgood, who felt like a 'stranger in a strange land' at her first Seder.

Ex-Navy Seal Eric Greitens is plunging into the GOP primary for #Missouri governor — the same race shaken by the suicide of a candidate dogged by an anti-Jewish 'whisper campaign.'

"My cousin and I are both dating non-Jews who are considering converting. Is it wrong to ask our dad to tone down the Seder this year so they get a nicer impression of Judaism?"
Check out the advice in this week's #Seesaw: http://jd.fo/p8Jdx

In her now infamous New Yorker piece, Lena Dunham acted like an outsider looking in. Doing this made it not just unfunny but anti-Semitic, J.E. Reich says.

In Rabat, Jonathan Katz found more tolerance for Jews than he’s seen in many "clean and safe" Western cities. So why is #Morocco often described as "dirty and dangerous"?

As far as we know, Abraham Lincoln never said, "Some of my best friends are Jewish." But clearly he could have.

Vayter / ווײַטער: A biweekly blog presenting original Yiddish articles, fiction, essays, videos and art by young writers and artists.

We will not share your e-mail address or other personal information.

The Forward occasionally sends promotional e-mails to our subscribers on behalf of selected sponsors, whose advertising supports our independent journalism. We hope you will look at their messages and find their offers interesting to you, but if you would like to opt out of receiving them, please uncheck this box.